HBO to no longer air new episodes of “Sesame Street ”on Max

Sesame Street is looking for a new home.

Warner Bros. Discovery has opted not to renew the output deal which has brought new episodes of the long-running children's program to HBO and Max since 2016. The existing Sesame Street library will remain on the platform until at least 2027, however, and the latest season will premiere next month.

"It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children's series and we are thrilled to be able to keep some of the library series on Max in the U.S,"
a spokesperson for Max shared in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. "As we've launched Max though and based on consumer usage and feedback, we've had to prioritize our focus on stories for adults and families, and so new episodes from Sesame Street, at this time, are not as core to our strategy."

HBO first announced that the network would air new episodes of Sesame Street in 2015, with the program's long-time home, PBS, continuing to air those episodes months later. The network then inked a five-year deal in 2019 that moved Sesame Street from HBO to its new streaming platform, then called HBO Max. Several spinoff series were ordered and a license was secured for the show's voluminous, 50-year library.

The Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, reiterated enthusiasm for the library remaining on Max in a statement shared with EW: "We are excited to extend our 10-year partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, keeping Sesame Street’s iconic library available on Max through 2027. We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months, ensuring that Sesame Street reaches as many children as possible for generations to come."

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The series went through several changes in the ensuing years — the transition to longer, narrative-forward segments, reducing episode runtimes from one hour to 30 minutes, and the introduction of several new characters, including the first autistic character and the first homeless muppet.

Not every change was positive, however, as several cast members were let go amid a worsening climate of financial insecurity.

Sesame Street's mission from its 1969 inception was to rely exclusively on public funding to assure parents that corporate interests wouldn't cloud its educational and empowering message to children. But public funds are doled out - and withdrawn - at the whim of politicians. Calls to defund PBS and traditional funding sites like the National Endowment for the Arts have already renewed in the wake of Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 election.

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THR reported in 2019 that operating costs likely exceed over $100 million per year, markedly higher than the pre-HBO days due to the mandate to produce nearly twice as many episodes per year than when PBS was the exclusive home of Sesame Street.

Old episodes of Sesame Street can still be streamed on Max through 2027.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly